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Rashtrapati Bhavan on high alert after staff’s family member tests positive for Covid-19

The sanitation worker’s house in the Presidential Estate has been disinfected and sealed, and 25 families living in close contact have been quarantined.

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New Delhi: The Rashtrapati Bhavan, housing the office and residence of President Ram Nath Kovind, is on high alert after a resident on the sprawling 360-acre premises tested positive for Covid-19 Sunday.

The resident is the daughter-in-law of a sanitation worker employed in the premises, who lives with her family in the staff quarters in Rashtrapati Bhavan Annexe. The woman got infected from her mother who had tested positive for Covid-19 and died last week at a city hospital, said a source in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The remaining family members of the woman, including her mother-in-law who is the sanitation worker, have tested negative. However, they have been quarantined in a government facility, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson.

The worker’s house has been disinfected and sealed while 125 families living in the area have been directed to self isolate, added the spokesperson.

The family lived quite far off from where Kovind lives in the Presidential Estate.

“All necessary precautions have been taken at Rashtrapati Bhavan, which has been on high alert since the last month-and-a-half when the outbreak hit India. No visitors are allowed inside and the entire premises is disinfected a number of times throughout the day. We are maintaining very stringent hygiene standards,” added the spokesperson.


Also read: Shivraj Chouhan expands MP cabinet with 5 ministers — 2 of them Congress rebels


How the woman got infected

Sources in the Rashtrapati Bhavan said the authorities found that the woman got infected from her mother who had tested positive for the virus and died last week. The mother did not stay in the Rashtrapati Bhavan premises.

“The daughter used to visit her mother in the hospital. When she died, her daughter along with her mother-in-law, who is the sanitation worker, went for the funeral. It was only after some neighbours informed the President’s Secretariat that authorities swung into action,” said a source.

Estate officials informed the health officials who evacuated the family and took them to a quarantine facility.

“The entire family of the sanitation worker was tested. Except for the daughter-in-law, all others tested negative. The family’s primary contacts living near their house have also been tested. Their report is awaited,” the source added.

There was a scare in the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 20 March following reports of Rajasthan’s Jhalawar-Baran MP Dushyant Singh’s meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind and 100-odd parliamentarians on 18 March for a breakfast event.

The meeting had come two days after Singh attended a party in Lucknow where Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor was also present. She tested positive for Covid-19 after the party. Singh, who later went into self quarantine, tested negative.


Also read: From unpaid domestic care work to menstrual hygiene – Covid’s double whammy for Indian women


 

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